DuSable Marina in Chicago, IL to Joliet City Dock in Joliet, IL
Day #64: Up at 5:00 A.M. to get underway at sunrise. Very warm and breezy. We were underway at 6:15 A.M. from DuSable. We locked through the Chicago Harbor Lock (our very first lock ever #1) we were the only ones in the lock chamber so it was great. At this lock the lines are hanging for you to grab. At 6:45 A.M. we were out of the Harbor Lock where we were lowered 4 feet. We traveled through downtown Chicago under numerous bridges. At 7:18 A.M. I called the Amtrack Bridge for a lift and they told us that it would be at least 15 minutes but it was only about a 10 minute wait. Due to the height of some boats or preference some boaters do the Calumet River/Cal-Sag which joins the Chicago River, we were at that point at 10 A.M. today. At 11:00 A.M. we passed the Asian Carp fish barrier, an under water electric discharge to prevent the Asian Carp from getting into Lake Michigan. At 11:35 A.M. Mike called the Lockport Lock and we were told that we needed to wait for a tug/barge to lock through before we could enter the lock. It was very windy but Mike did a great job just repositioning us so that we were out of the way. At 1:05 P.M. we entered the lock along with "Recess" and "Change of Pace", both Looper boats. The wait to get in was 1 1/2 hours. I was able to successfully get the line around the floating bollard using a technique taught to us by Carey and Nancy in Racine. We were dropped 39 feet at the Lockport Lock & Dam (Lock #2). At 1:35 P.M. we excited the lock. We followed "Recess" and "Change of Pace" for numerous bridge openings. We decided to stop at the Joliet Bicentennial Park where there is a free wall to tie up to with power, Also tied along are "Recess" and "Change of Pace". Soon "Wine Speed", "Kostal Karma" and "TxAu" tied up. At 5:00 P.M. Mike and I had hamburgers for dinner. "Baytripper" showed up along with a Ranger Tug a bit later. We had docktails with all of the boats. Tonight there is a total of 8 boats on the wall. Today we traveled a total of 41.9 miles (total trip 669 miles). We are expecting storms overnight. We are going to see how the weather is in the morning to determine if we are going to leave the free wall. Our plan is to try to get through 3 locks stopping in Ottawa, IL where we have a reservation at a marina for the next two nights.
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Sunrise on our way to the Chicago Lock.
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Dime Pier between the Chicago Lock and Navy Pier.
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Waiting for the lock door to open. See the red light just below the trapezoid windows of the lockmaster control room.
Lock doors opening.
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| Trump Tower as we were heading down the river. |
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| Waiting for the Amtrak Bridge to open. Only 10' clearance when closed. We need 15'. |
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Our first tug/barge of the day.
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Very large tug/barge coming at us in the river.
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Beautiful portion of the river with rock walls.
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| Looking backward down the Cal/Sag as we went by, no traffic from that direction. |
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Tug "Chicago Warrior" we followed this tug/barge at a very slow pace finally he backed into small area in the river.
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Fish barrier time.
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| Our instructions for going through the barrier. |
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The beginning of the barrier.
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| Leaving the barrier no Asian Carp in the boat. |
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Leaving the Lockport Lock.
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Line was placed around the bollard then back to the boat. This is how we hold the boat in the lock. There is turbulence in the
lock due to the water. We were lowered 39 feet.
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Lock doors starting to close after we left. The chamber was then refilled for 3-looper boats that were behind us so that they could be lowered.
Chicago, IL to Joliet, IL DuSable Marina to Joliet Wall.
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Joliet free wall where 8 looper boats are tied this evening.
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| Parrot Bay tied to the wall. |
